Good Ideas, Bad Ideas and Better Ideas
by ricetard
Summary: Scorpius has an idea that he and Albus should go swim in the lake. Albus is too smitten with his best friend to say no. So then they swim in the lake. / Al/Scorpius, oneshot, slash


It had been Scorpius's idea, of course, and Albus had no idea why he had agreed to it. Well, at first, it sounded like a pretty good idea. Now that Albus was in nothing but his trunks and was staring at the cold green waves of the lake, he regretted to ever agreeing with Scorpius. And thinking it was a good idea.

Though Albus couldn't have helped it, really. Having a crush on his presumably best friend (it had never been official, but Albus did notice that Scorpius was closer with him than anyone else. Though it was hard to please Scorpius, anyways) tended to alter his feelings and choices with said best friend, anyways. He would always agree with Scorpius, do whatever Scorpius wanted them to do (within reason, of course.) So when Scorpius said that they should go swimming in the lake, well, it had sounded pretty fun. Either that, or Albus had been too distracted by the hollow of Scorpius's throat and unknowingly had said yes.

Scorpius was standing next to him, equally bare in his own black swim trunks (Albus's were green) and grinning at him mischievously. "Ready to do this?" he asked.

Albus swallowed. He hoped Scorpius didn't notice this. "Ready." Why did his voice sound like a squeak?

"I'll go first, to test out the waters," said Scorpius. "Wish me luck!"

And without further abandon, he dived quite gracefully into the lake.

"Good luck," Albus croaked into the air.

Perhaps he should have taken advantage of Scorpius before he had dived in, for all the eye candy Scorpius had been (_half-naked!_) Albus reflected to himself—but he really couldn't help it. He was too bloody scared about this. And apparently his fear was stronger than his attraction to Scorpius. Maybe.

It was a good two minutes when Albus realized that the lake was completely still right now, and nothing had popped up. Absolutely nothing. Not even one of the Giant Squid's tentacles. All was peaceful... and this was not right, Albus realized as he peered through the water and couldn't see a thing.

"Scorpius?" he called out to the lake.

No answer. Of course. As if Scorpius could hear him under the water, anyways. Albus picked up his wand and muttered a quick incantation he had learned in fourth year, that could detect human presence. He got a track somewhere out in the middle of the lake. Raising his wand, Albus took a deep breath and yelled, "Accio Scorpius!"

At once, Scorpius's body shot out of the lake—attached to the Giant Squid, as well. Albus shrieked, fell and scrambled backwards as Scorpius flew through the air, with the squid's tentacle still wrapped around him, and landed on the ground, looking quite unconscious. Worriedly, Albus ran up to him and started poking him.

"Scorpius?" he said. "Scorpius? _Scorpius_?" Fear started to overcome him. "Scorpius! _Scorpius_! SCORPIUS WAKE UP YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME NOW!"

"Bloody hell," said Scorpius, opening his eyes up and laughing. "You are so loud, Al." He picked himself up, tickled the tentacle around his waist, and said, "Thanks, squiddy."

The tentacle slipped off and nudged Scorpius playfully. Scorpius laughed and hit it back, and then the tentacle went back into the water.

Albus stared at him. "What... What was _that_?"

"That's what we call the Giant Squid, Al," said Scorpius, looking amused.

Albus stared at him again for a good ten seconds. Then he started hitting Scorpius's bare chest with his hands, ignoring his face heating up every time they touched.

"You—complete—_imbecile_—! You scared me half to death!" He hit Scorpius again. "I meant what was that _for_!" And again.

"Ow—shit—stop it Al!" Scorpius flailed back and knocked Albus's hands out of the way. "Just wanted to pull a little prank on you, that's all." He flashed Albus a grin.

"Some prank. You're as bad as James," Albus grumbled, turning away.

Scorpius grabbed him by his bare shoulders—Albus's skin tingled again—and looked him dead in the eye. "I am nowhere as awful as that older brother of yours," he said to him. "Don't ever compare me to him again."

He looked bloody sexy when he was irritated. Albus desperately forced himself not to get turned on. "Okay," he said, and regretfully shoved Scorpius's wet body away. "Now can I get in the water now? Since you've already had your fun?"

"Yeah, yeah." Scorpius rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Don't hurt yourself."

"I'll try not to," Albus called over his shoulder.

He walked to the edge of the lake and waded in. It was cold. Albus tried to welcome the water—it was only autumn, after all—but found that he couldn't since, his entire top half was shivering, his bottom half numb.

"Go all the way in!" shouted Scorpius. "You'll feel much better!"

That was exactly what Albus didn't _want_ to do (then again, he had never wanted to go into the lake in the first place, anyways), but he yelled back, "Okay!" Taking a deep breath, Albus swallowed his pride and ducked right in.

Surprisingly, being underwater made his entire body warm. Albus opened his eyes and spotted a grindylow in the deeper waters a little ways off. Along with the grindylows were the merpeople, who regarded Albus strangely. Albus supposed that they wondered why humans—he and Scorpius—were presently in the lake. Albus waved at them, and then popped his head back up.

The November air was colder this time. Albus couldn't help his teeth from chattering.

"How is it?" Scorpius called to him.

"It's great!" Albus yelled back. "I'm going to go in to see if I can get a bit deeper!"

Scorpius looked troubled at this. "Al, I don't think that's a very good—"

But Albus heard no more when he ducked his head back in and shot his eyes open, ignoring the first few seconds of sting and really took in the sights.

The bottom of the lake looked exactly like how it did from the Slytherin common room, though Albus supposed that there was a bit of a difference, considering he was currently seeing through his unprotected eyes rather than the magically protected glass. But the sea creatures, though blurry and a bit dark, were in the form of creatures and fish Albus knew he had seen before.

Raising his wand up, Albus cast a nonverbal spell to make himself see everything a bit clearer, and then started swimming further down. He also felt himself losing a bit of oxygen, so he poked his head up for a millisecond and cast another nonverbal spell, this time a Bubble-Head Charm, and then ducked back down beneath the water and swam toward the bottom of the lake.

He could see the Giant Squid, gazing at him the utmost curiosity; the merpeople too, though, as over the years they had become more subdued and friendly only watched Albus cagily but didn't do a thing. Albus suspected that they only planned to attack if _he_ did anything to them. He waved at them cheerfully, and then headed even further down the murky depths.

Down here were plimpies and shrakes, with the occasoinal hippocampus. Albus did his best to avoid those. He could see many nests—from what he remembered in Care of Magical Creatures from third to fifth year, plimpies lived near the merpeople, usually on rocks and barnacles near their shelter. Shrakes were among the normal nonmagical fish, as they could often be found in Muggle parts, anyways, and—was that a lolabug, near one of the mermen's feet? Albus quickly swam away from that as well. He wouldn't want to get on the merpeople's bad side.

He came across a patch of stringy seaweed, floating in the middle of the lake... Albus remembered learning about them, though he didn't think it was in Care of Magical Creatures. What class was it in again? Some creature definitely lived in them, though Albus couldn't quite recall which one—

Then suddenly, like a sting, Albus felt something on his leg as he entered the seaweed—at first he had thought he caught his leg on something, but when he turned around, something was biting on him instead. _A grindylow!_ Albus thought frantically—that was what lived in the seaweed, and Albus had seen the grindylows earlier, didn't he? Why didn't he make the connection? His mind was just going nowhere again, as always. Albus did his best to fight off the grindylow, but then he felt another bite somewhere on his back—he cried out and the Bubble-Head Charm around his head popped and he was screaming in the water, though it only sounded like noisy gurgles as more and more grindylows continued attacking him...

Out of nowhere, Albus felt a rush of cool air and the stings all over his body suddenly stopped. He was soaring, soaring, farther and higher he could feel even though his eyes were squeezed closed, and Albus shut his eyes even tighter, bracing himself for impact—

—and landed on something soft. A Cushioning Charm, Albus realized dazedly.

"Al?" Scorpius's voice was panicked. "Al? Al! Albus Potter, can you hear me?"

Albus wanted to say yes, but found that he couldn't; a whole lot of water had dislodged into his throat. It was a bit hard to open his eyes, too. He suspected that the only reason he was somewhat conscious was because of the Bubble-Head Charm; it hadn't despelled, only had been made unworking underwater.

"Albus!" Scorpius sounded close to tears. "Answer me!" He slapped Albus across the face. Strangely, it didn't sting, it was only numb. So he couldn't feel anything, Albus realized. Or do anything. He could only hear and sense. Sort of.

"Al..." Scorpius's voice sounded hesitant. He started mumbling to himself, though now Albus couldn't hear a word he was saying. He wished he could. It would be a lot more interesting than laying here on the ground with his eyes closed, unable to react.

"Albus, I'm about to do something now," Scorpius said suddenly. "Something that you shouldn't slap me for when you wake up... that is, if you wake up, of course, but I—I mean, I want to. I—have to."

Then a pair of lips were on Albus's. Albus was so surprised that he nearly spit out the water clogged in throat—instead, for some miraculous reason, he swallowed it all instead. And even though it was the lake water, it made his senses clearer and Albus had energy again and he opened his eyes and saw that Scorpius's were closed and he hadn't noticed anything and he was actually _kissing_ him.

Well. For a second there, Albus had thought Scorpius was meaning to give him the breath of life.

A bit hesitantly, then eagerly, Albus kissed back. Still, he wasn't sure if Scorpius noticed. So he kissed more, and harder, until his hands were running up and down Scorpius's bare back then he was gripping onto his shoulders and he rolled until they were both on their sides and Scorpius's eyes shot open. And Scorpius jumped back.

"Albus, you're alive!" he said. "You scared me!" His eyes narrowed. "Was that a prank to get me back?"

Albus suspected that he was avoiding the question that was on both of their minds. "No," he said. "Unlike you, I am not a git and I don't pretend to be injured."

"Yeah, yeah." Scorpius forced out a laugh and scratched the back of his wet blond hair. It shimmered in the sunlight. "So, uh... sorry about that."

"Sorry?" Albus blinked. "Sorry about what?"

"The, er. That part where I kissed you," said Scorpius. Pink spots appeared on his cheeks.

"Oh. Heh. Right." Albus blushed as well. "I thought you were giving me CPR."

"What's CPR?"

"A Muggle thing. Never mind." Albus waved his hand. "I just. Um. You don't need to be sorry. 'Cause. Um. I liked it."

"You did?" Scorpius's eyes went wide.

"Well if you missed the part where I kissed you back..."

"Oh. Right." Scorpius let out another forced laugh. "Right."

An awkward pause fell between them.

"So," said Scorpius. "We're two sixteen year old boys, half-naked, and just found out that we fancy each other. What do you suppose we do now?"

"I think," said Albus, "that we should go back to what we were doing earlier."

"What, swimming in the lake?"

"No, snogging." Albus grinned.

Scorpius grinned back. "Excellent idea."

And they did just that.


End file.
